Serendipity
by OnkelJo
Summary: James MacPherson is dead. H.G. Wells is still at large. The Warehouse Crew deals with the aftermath. As always when artifacts are involved, things don't stay calm for long. Season 2 AU.
1. Dreams

**Chapter 1: Dreams**

The Warehouse had had many titles over the years.

The World's Junk Drawer. America's Attic. Library of Crazy. A World of Endless Wonder.

Arthur Nielsen, Artie for friends, had been there for most of them, perhaps second only to Mrs Frederic. But since the woman had been the Warehouse's caretaker for probably well over a century and still didn't look a day over forty five, she wasn't part of the competition.

It was a competition the "Senior Warehouse Agent" had in the bag, at least since the death of his former partner and friend, James MacPherson.

The ex-agent had burned to ashes from the inside out in Artie's arms only three days ago. It had taken the team every waking second of those three days to go through the artifacts that MacPherson had accumulated for sale, cataloguing each and every one of them and shelving them with Leena's sage advice.

Artifacts, and keeping them safely locked up, was the sole purpose of the Warehouse. Objects imbued with the tangential energy of the right person and the right event at the right time developed powers. Powers too powerful to be out in the open. Not just because people were greedy bastards in general, but every artifact had a downside when you used it; it ranged from harmless to life threatening and potentially world ending.

He still hadn't gotten around to making Leena and Claudia, their hatchling, talk it out, with the latter still being mad at the former for stealing her identity to help MacPherson with the help of an artifact - although, to Leena's defense, she had been under the influence of a mind-controlling artifact herself. That in and of itself screamed forgiveness to him already. You were barely being considered part of the warehouse crew until you had been under the influence of (and/or nearly killed by) an artifact.

"Hey, Artie! No lollygagging, old man," the voice of the Warehouse's newest apprentice tore Artie out of his thoughts... and she sounded way too cheery for this hour of the day. "Come on, it's the last artifact. I'll treat you to cookies later in the B and B if you help me. Deal?"

Artie gave the young redhead a flat stare. "You'd do well to remember that I am still your boss, young lady." He raised his nose and sniffed mock-indignantly. "Also, I'll have you know that I am _incorruptible_ , even in the face of cookies."

"Sure," she snorted and grinned at him, "whatever helps you sleep at night." With that, she turned and made her way to the shrunken pile of artifacts, which, true enough, contained only a single artifact, finally.

"Last item on the list, is… what, exactly? A medieval dollhouse?" she asked as she checked their inventory list. Indeed, before them stood a relatively large dollhouse. Unlike any other dollhouse she had ever seen (not that she had seen many), this house was a little like the Castle Grayskull playset, except way less spooky… and kind of inviting, now that she thought of it.

Artie, having made his way to her by now, smiled slightly. "Not just any dollhouse. This is the first completely finished prototype of Moritz Gottschalk's Fairy-Castle Dollhouse."

Claudia eyed him suspiciously. "I really don't want to, but I know you'll make me ask you about it, anyway; so... what the frak is this thing?"

"Oh, I am _so_ glad you asked," he replied with a sly grin on his face. "Moritz Gottschalk was a German entrepreneur who started making dollhouses in eighteen hundred seventy three. He-"

"I _knew_ it was a trap! Make it stop!" Claudia groaned as she picked up the dollhouse with her purple neutralizer gloves and marched to the aisle Leena had designated on its tag, just to get away from him.

Exploiting the fact that she couldn't outrun him with the added weight from the dollhouse, he decided to torture his apprentice a little longer. "This particular prototype was built in a time where the German people longed for an escape from reality. The social life more or less stagnated and a large part of their time was directed inward, into their family life - it's complicated, with wars and everything - and this nifty little castle was imbued with that longing. I would advise you against trying to catch forty winks anywhere near it, by the way; you'll wake up inside, and the castle gains a new tenant."

Claudia eyed the artifact warily, and she would've held the surprisingly heavy dollhouse further away from her body now; if she could have, that was. Instead, she was left cursing inwardly at the laws of physics in general and lever forces in particular.

She tried to tune out her boss rattling off all those boring facts about an artifact she wanted nothing to do with, and tried to quicken her step, to no avail. Right now he was on a tangent jumping between Napoleon and Bismarck.

She loved Artie dearly, but the tangents he went on so frequently were the bane of her existence. Especially since he knew exactly that it would rile her up. Relief flooded her body when she heaved the dollhouse onto its hopefully final resting place.

She felt the inviting warmth radiate off the fairy castle, but something felt… out of place. Following her own gut instinct, she started removing the latches that kept the two halves closed.

Artie stopped his rambling the instant he saw Claudia messing with the latches. "Relax, Grumps," she said without looking at him, "you said it is activated by falling asleep in its vicinity, so opening it up shouldn't do anything. I just got a bad feeling about this thing, that's all."

"It's an _artifact_. I'd be more worried if you _didn't_ have a bad feeling about it," he shot back drily. "Now stop messing with it and come back to the B and B with me. I think Leena wanted to make oatmeal scotchies this afternoon."

With the final latch opened, she looked back and grinned at the senior agent. "Too late. Let's see what has gotten this puppy in such a funk..."

Artie narrowed his eyes at his apprentice, but couldn't help risking a look over her shoulder once she separated the two halves. "Now that you're done not listening to me, would you mind telling me what you've found, perhaps?"

"Err… a doll? Out of cloth, sewn." Claudia frowned at the dollhouse. This was far more normal than what she had expected to find. She also didn't expect Artie to push her to the side and close the dollhouse on his own.

"Sorry, Artie," she said perplexed, as he wordlessly made his way back to his office.

He held open the door for her and shut it quickly once she was through. Claudia started feeling antsy; Artie was almost always calm and collected. If he acted like this, something had to be really wrong.

"Claudia, I need you to do something for me," he said softly, to which she could only nod wordlessly. "Forget that you saw anything inside the dollhouse."

She came closer to Artie and eyed him suspiciously. "Why? What does it mean?"

He gave her a hard stare. "It means that someone has already used the dollhouse and is trapped inside."

Claudia could swear that she had just heard her jaw clatter to the ground. "Come again?"

"You heard me just fine," he replied with a flat chuckle. "Last time I checked, you had ears." With that he started rummaging through stacks of papers on his desk.

"Well, how do we get them out?" she half-yelled. Sometimes, Artie could be really infuriating.

The older agent stopped in his tracks and looked up at her. "We don't." And back to his stack of paper he went.

So goshdarn infuriating! "But-"

Artie's fists slammed into the desk, sending files flying. " There. Are. No. Buts. Do you understand?" he told her and glared at her, to which she could only answer with a silent nod. His glare softened a bit at her response. "We have no idea who, or what, is inside that dollhouse. Is it another Alice? Or the original Krampus? The chances of anything trapped in an artifact being benevolent are slim to none. We at the Warehouse do not- no, can not, take those chances."

"Okay," she meekly gave back and stared at her feet, probably waiting for him to finish whatever he was doing. Artie gave her a look that a parent would give their child after yelling too much.

He stopped rummaging through the stack of files, cleared part of the table and sat down on the newly freed spot. He adjusted his glasses, only to take them back off and cleaning them intently.

"Look," he started, "I know this isn't easy for you. The artifacts you know of that trap people have been surprisingly good to us. Rheticus' compass gave us your brother back, but we knew the artifact well; and when Myka was trapped in Lewis Carroll's Mirror, we could confirm her identity. But our streak won't hold forever." He let out a small sigh and stood up from the table. "Now there's only one thing left."

Claudia frowned in confusion. "What?"

She watched Artie sling his jacket over his arm and walk to the door leading out through the newly rebuilt umbilicus. As he stepped through, he looked back at her with a smirk on his face. "First one to Leena's gets twice as many cookies."

With that the door slammed shut, and Claudia heard his footsteps scurry off from behind the closed door. "Hey! So not fair!" she shouted after him before giving chase, a silent curse (and a smile) on her lips.


	2. Divergence

**Chapter 2: Divergence  
**

Artie slumped into the cushions of the armchair and groaned. "If I ever suggest again that I race Claudia for cookies, just shoot me."

Leena brought a tray of cookies and sat it down on the coffee table. "What drove you, anyway? This is very unlike you."

He gave the young woman a dirty glare. "Just because I was physically active for once doesn't mean something is wrong with me, okay?"

Leena only rolled her eyes at him, the ghost of a smile on her lips. "Here, have a cookie, then. You're extra grumpy when you haven't eaten enough."

Artie narrowed his eyes at her. "Evil woman," he muttered around a cookie. "And it's not like I _ran_ the seven miles from the Warehouse. I _drove_. Not that this wouldn't make it any less sadder, but still."

After waiting long seconds for the witty comeback he expected from her which never came, he turned around in his seat to a sight he didn't want to see. Leena was leaving the room and Claudia entered, the two women barely acknowledging the other with wary glances as they passed each other. He sighed inwardly. This was going to have to be addressed some day soon, if they wanted to continue working together efficiently as a team, not to mention living together as a big dysfunctional family in the B and B.

Claudia gave a sigh of her own and let herself plop onto the couch. "Have Pete and Myka called already? They should be in Detroit by now, right?"

"Yeah. They haven't had any luck yet, though," Artie replied after swallowing the last pieces of his cookie.

"Sweet," she muttered and yawned slightly, pulling her feet up on the couch, "meaning we can actually call it a day before dusk for once, right?"

"Don't jinx it," he groaned. "That's right up there with, 'I have a bad feeling about this', and 'What could possibly go wrong?'"

Claudia snorted, but didn't answer. When he looked over to the young redhead's form, he could see her jaw move, and a quick glance to his plate confirmed his suspicion. "Thief," he grumbled under his breath. _Oatmeal scotchies, too!_

His youngest apprentice winked at him, as if she knew that he had only just realized the theft.

"What about Leena?" he asked.

"What about her?" she asked right back, trying her best to look innocent. Too bad that Artie was having none of it and shot her a flat look instead.

"You know I will not let up about this. She hasn't done anything wrong, and I thought you knew the Warehouse well enough to get that. _And,_ that you knew _Leena_ well enough to know that she would never hurt any of us intentionally, including you."

Claudia grimaced. She could have sworn this was instant karma for that snagged cookie, but she was not above admitting that Artie was right.

"I know," she whined, "still, I may know that rationally, but that doesn't change how I feel about her at the moment. Give it some more time? Please? It's only been a few days, Artie."

This felt more and more like bargaining to him every second, but it was a start. Miscommunication had cost many a good Warehouse agent their lives. At least she had given him something to work with, which was honestly more than he had expected from breaching the subject for the first time with her. He had no problem keeping the two of them occupied and separated for as long as they needed to talk things out.

There was always inventory work.

* * *

Leena had been trying unsuccessfully to ignore the pain since she had woken up. The headaches, she could deal with. What really got to her were the sudden dizzy spells that always came at the most inconvenient moments. On ladders, for example, when she was doing inventory. Or like just a few minutes ago, when she grabbed the oven to right herself after a particularly bad one, because burns were _so much better_ than bruises. She glared at the angry red skin on her left hand as she dialed a number on her phone with the other.

"Yes, Mrs Frederic. You said I should call you if it gets worse?"

* * *

Artie was pouring over some of the tomes that he had spread out on the table in his office overlooking the Warehouse, several sheets of paper strewn about that were already marked with notes. Deciding to take a break from the analog search for the artifact that sent him apparitions of his former partner, he swiveled around and made his way towards the computer system.

It was just like James to send him on one final artifact hunt, giving him the finger from the grave; they had worked together for far too long for Arthur to be fooled by James' posh accent. He frowned when the system coughed up General Patton's helmet. "No, no, no… you're not the one doing this," he muttered.

"Doing what, Arthur?" a familiar voice with a posh accent asked from behind.

Artie swiveled around in his seat, only to look into the concerned faces of Leena and Claudia instead of MacPherson's ugly mug.

"Artie… not doing what?" Claudia asked, clearly perturbed.

"Nothing," came the quick answer, as automatic as ever. " _Nothing_ did _anything_." He could've come up with a much more believable lie if he hadn't been so caught off guard by James' apparition. Probably. As it was, the lie was so threadbare, if you could have worn it, you would've been arrested for indecent exposure.

* * *

He had cracked mere seconds after that, to no one's particular surprise. It was a cheap and easy way to just push all the fault for that onto the apparition of James MacPherson, but Artie was doing exactly that. He had more important things to do. They (meaning the Warehouse's Holy Trinity of Artie, Leena and Claudia) were all assembled around a glorified washing machine filled with the precious and slightly nauseating purple neutralizer goo, and since two seconds ago, Rasputin's prayer rope.

"Well, a good scrubbing should get rid of MacPherson," he said with more hope than he actually felt and dropped the lid onto the goo.

In all his wishful thinking, Artie almost forgot the intensified effects of the goo reaching into the deepest pores of the artifact, and barely got his hands up to shield both Leena and Claudia from the flashing lights, who were just watching on in barely concealed interest.

A thick silence hung over them after the light show died down, only disturbed by the slurping sound the prayer rope made when Artie pulled it out of the goo with some barbecue tongs.

Waiting a long moment, he looked around the Warehouse. "James? _Do Svidanya_!"

* * *

It had been an eventful day in Univille; and yet, the cozy innards of the Bed and Breakfast helped them all unwind a bit, each in their own way. Leena, after dealing with the whole ordeal with the Pearl of Wisdom and the amber orb, was armed with pen and paper, lazily drawing in a corner, while Claudia enjoyed some alone-time with the Tesla gun.

"So, Claudia…" Myka piped up from her chair and book.

 _Hearing_ her smirk through her voice had the young redhead look up in worry. Nothing good ever came from smirks. "That's a scary tone," she murmured, but to no avail.

"Todd's cute," Myka continued, undeterred by Claudia's trepidation.

"Todd who?" she asked automatically; Artie had been a bad teacher in terms of lying. Or a good one, depending on how you looked at it.

Myka only snorted in victory, having gained the reaction she wanted.

"This is me ignoring you," Claudia offered and snapped shut the Tesla's wooden case and hastily retreated from the awkwardness.

 _Saved by the popcorn,_ she thought as a grinning Pete strutted into the living room clutching a giant bowl filled with the puffy treat, and a DVD featuring their new favorite actor. It didn't take much convincing to lure them all in for the movie night; with the popcorn of course, they had had enough of that particular fellow to last a lifetime.

Following a very excited Pete upstairs for a chance at some of it, she was quickly followed by the women who were ganging up on her about her love life.

 _Pete, please save me,_ was on repeat in her mind, and suddenly, a movie night starring the actor that almost annihilated Univille was looking more and more tempting by the second.

Unbeknownst to all of them, Mrs Frederic stared at their retreating forms and tore Leena's drawing from her notepad. Her caretaker senses tingled all over, and not in a good way. Nonetheless, or even more so now, she would find the reason for the young owner of the B and B to draw a house.

* * *

 **Heeeeeey, I'm not dead! :D Just terribly busy with university. Despite life's best efforts, I got a new chapter for you, aptly named, I must say. Because in this one, we diverge from canon! At least a little bit. It's a start. You'll see soon enough.**

 **Anyway, I have hope that I can update my stories soon-ish, at least. Life, work, multiple stories to juggle, it's not that easy. But, most of you know that feeling I suppose, so, all I can say is, bear with me, other new stuff is in the pipeline, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, leave a review if you like, and I'll see you next time :)**

 **Also, shoutout to the wonderful Tafferling, whose reviews were a much needed kick in the buttocks to get on with my writing :D**


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